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It does seem weird that baseball caps are such a huge part of hip hop culture, but that the game itself is not associated with hip hop at all. Jay-Z is really the only rapper who's a semi-serious baseball fan I'm aware of.

It does seem weird that baseball caps are such a huge part of hip hop culture, but that the game itself is not associated with hip hop at all. Jay-Z is really the only rapper who's a semi-serious baseball fan I'm aware of.

Nelly. (And Beastie Boys if you considered them rap at all)

But is any rapper really associated that much with a particular sport? That is like saying not many rockers are associated with NFL. It might be true, but is it really something that we as fans would actually know? Unless they are showing their allegiance by lyrics or wearing gear (which of course is often then blacked out) how would we know what they are interested in?

I still don't get these "we need to find a way to appeal to black youth" arguments, instead of "we need to find a way to appeal to youth" argument. Assuming any of these points that this writer makes were valid, is there any reason given why the pace of the game affects black children more than white or hispanic children? Are black children more likely to suffer from ADD? I don't get that argument in the slightest.

This such a tired argument. Joe Morgan would bring it every week on the ESPN Sunday game.

Young African-Americans don't appear to like or want to play baseball. Place the onus on black superstars to get the youth involved. What are the Upton bros, Adam Jones, Kemp, CC, Jeter, Griffey, Willie Mays, Joe Morgan, Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron, David Price, Barry Bonds, Andrew McCutchen, Prince, Gar Sheffield and other present and past superstars doing? Torii Hunter is the only that I have heard of doing anything to promote baseball in the inner city.

Its not all MLB's responsibility to assist black youth to decide to play baseball.

One thing I'm wondering: The "percentage of African-Americans in MLB" is often cited, but it ignores that fact that the overall talent pool has grown- Latin America, Canada, Asia, etc. The percentage of MLB being African-American has definitely decreased, yes, but one of the causes (amongst several other equally as legitimate ones such as the rise of other sports leagues) is also because there are fewer AMERICANS PERIOD (percentage-wise) playing baseball than there were from 1960-1990. This is NOT A BAD THING- it has brought us lots of stars and helped keep the level of play high despite expansion- if we had a 30-team MLB back in the 60s to 80s, it'd be ugly compared to what it is now.

If we were to simply look at "percentage of African-Americans amongst USA-born MLB Players", what would the drop be? Probably not as steep as the "percentage of African-Americans in MLB" is...

One thing I'm wondering: The "percentage of African-Americans in MLB" is often cited, but it ignores that fact that the overall talent pool has grown- Latin America, Canada, Asia, etc. The percentage of MLB being African-American has definitely decreased, yes, but one of the causes (amongst several other equally as legitimate ones such as the rise of other sports leagues) is also because there are fewer AMERICANS PERIOD (percentage-wise) playing baseball than there were from 1960-1990. This is NOT A BAD THING- it has brought us lots of stars and helped keep the level of play high despite expansion- if we had a 30-team MLB back in the 60s to 80s, it'd be ugly compared to what it is now.

I'm all in favor of more subsidies for inner city Little Leagues, and I think we'd all favor more full college scholarships for baseball, since football and basketball already have those built-in farm systems. Both of those moves would likely bring more African Americans into the game, especially if colleges were known to be recruiting top high school baseball players with half the determination that they use to pursue high school stars of those other two sports. But that said, you're absolutely right that the explosion of international scouting has made today's game better than ever on the field.

GLWT. How many athletes does an NBA team employee compared to an MLB one? And how bout those guaranteed contracts in the NFL and NBA? And those salary caps.

That is a good point. The chances of making any money as a professional athlete has to be higher for baseball than either football or basketball. MLB has 750 players on the 25 man roster, has 1200 on the 40 man roster, and has probably over 4000 if you include the minors....basketball is 450 on the rosters....and that is pretty much it. Football has about 1700 in the NFL, and that is about it. Add in that you can play in the minors for several years and make decent money(relative to your age and education at least) and it's should be financially appealing to some.

You've also got plenty of pro basketball leagues all over Europe, which pay a lot better than minor league baseball.

If you are including those, then why wouldn't we include professional Asian baseball also? I don't think many people grow up thinking they want to play professional sports in a foreign country. The point is that there is a lot, and I mean a lot more professional baseball jobs available than basketball or football.

That is a good point. The chances of making any money as a professional athlete has to be higher for baseball than either football or basketball. MLB has 750 players on the 25 man roster, has 1200 on the 40 man roster, and has probably over 4000 if you include the minors....basketball is 450 on the rosters....and that is pretty much it. Football has about 1700 in the NFL, and that is about it. Add in that you can play in the minors for several years and make decent money(relative to your age and education at least) and it's should be financially appealing to some.

NBA and NFL are far more project able from an early age though. If you are a freak athlete there is an excellent chance that you make it big. In baseball there is no such thing as a can't miss prospect, especially for kids in their mid-teens, when realistically they need to make a choice.

It does seem weird that baseball caps are such a huge part of hip hop culture, but that the game itself is not associated with hip hop at all. Jay-Z is really the only rapper who's a semi-serious baseball fan I'm aware of

This is MLB’s “autopsy report” because the sport is on life support in black communities.

A. If you're going around doing autopsies of people on life support, you need to be arrested, tortured, killed, and then tried. If you're going to painfully mix metaphors, at least learn the meaning of the words.

B. MLB could give a rat's ass about it's status in black communities. Bring a checkbook if you want Bud's attention.

I really don't have any interest in what some random blogger or Stuart Sternberg has to say about this subject. I would be far more interested in hearing from people like Matt Kemp and David Price and Dexter Fowler and Jackie Bradley Jr. on why they pursued baseball and how the young African-American community feels about baseball, both in terms of playing it and in being fans. But we never seem to hear that.

11: Rany Z. and Joe S. talked about this at length on their most recent podcast episode. They said that Ken Arneson had a post that filtered out the foreign-born players and that the number then rose to 11%, which they said was consistent with the percentage among the overall American population.

They didn't really see an MLB-created problem, but Joe said that MLB could be proactive and fund travel teams of inner-city youth. They also discussed the old K.C. Royals academy, which Rany surpisingly didn't seem to know a lot about.

(1) It would be great if MLB had a commish who was a person of color, as I'm sure there are many eminently qualified candidates.

(2) I also don't think it would matter that much.

(3) Part of this is an illusion created by overrepresentation of Americans of African descent in (A) sports in general and (B) baseball in particular in the immediate post-integration period. US blacks play baseball at a roughly proportionate level to the rest of the American population.

(4) Getting more US blacks to play the game would almost certainly be good for baseball all the same. Probably would have essentially no impact on black folks' actual lives.

(5) Speaking of black folks, wallets, and Bud Selig's motives, though income equality is rising, there is still a small portion of wealthy black people who are benefiting from this just like wealthy white people are, and Selig has much more incentive to appeal to rich people of all kinds than anybody else, really.

(6) The idea that baseball somehow fails to appeal to black people because it is old-fashioned and slow feels weirdly freighted to me, and could be read to say that black people can't get into things that are cerebral and require a high attention span, which is ridiculous in its own way.